Musical Biography
One of the fastest rising artists of Austria, the bass Robert Holzer studied with Prof. Gertrud Schulz at the Bruckner University Linz and with Prof. Rudolf Knoll at the Mozarteum Salzburg.
His carreer began as a first price winner at the musical competition "young singers of Austria", and his operatic debut at Vienna Chamber Opera. He joined the ensemble of the opera house Bern (Switzerland) and guest contracts with international opera houses followed.
In 1991 he had his debut at the Vienna State Opera and fom 1996 – 2000 he was established as first bass at the Nationaltheater Mannheim (Germany).
His repertoire includes the leading bass roles in german and italian operas from SARASTRO(Magicflute), ROCCO(Fidelio), PHILIPPO(Don Carlos), LA ROCHE (Capriccio) to BARON OCHS(Rosenkavalier), he recently sang at Opera di Roma.
Robert Holzer is also well known and frequently asked for his interpretation of Wagner roles, like LANDGRAF(Tannhäuser), GURNEMANZ (Parsifal), FASOLT and HUNDING(Ring) and KING HEINRICH(Lohengrin) which he sang successfully under the direction of Peter Konwitschny at Teatro Liceu in Barcelona.
Further important opera houses in his carreer are Amsterdam, Athen, Buenos Aires, Brussels, Rome, Torino, Catania, Lisbon, Madrid, Metropolitan Theatre Seoul, Palermo, Santiago de Chile and Wexford Festival.
He is working with conductors like Cambreling, A. Fischer, Frühbeck de Burgos, Hager, Harnoncourt, Hengelbrock, Latham-König, Märkl, Schneider, Schoenwandt, Steinberg, Stein, Viotti, Zagrosek, Wallat und Welser-Möst.
He made his North American debut in concerts with the American Symphony Orchestra at New York's Lincoln Center.
Mr. Holzer is also in frequent demand as a recitalist and concert singer and his programs cover a wide range of repertoire from the Wiener Klassik to contemporary music. He regular is invited to sing in the most famous concert halls like in Amsterdam, Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Zurich, New York and Japan, where he recently sang Mahler 8. Symphony.
He is working with orchesters like Vienna Symphonic, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Orchestre National de Espana, London Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic.
His work is also documented by several recordings. The most important are 9th Beethoven (Naxos), Mozart-Requiem (Koch), Magicflute (Naxos), Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln, L'Apocalypse selon St.Jean, Masses from Haydn and Mozart (Naxos) and a Lied CD with songs from Schumann,Wolf and Pfitzner (Preiser).
Since 2006 the artist is also teaching at the Anton Bruckner University Linz for Master- and Bachelorstudents in the classes of Song and Oratory.